d’Elaine is a woman of our times, and also is timeless, in many ways. After a long career as an art instructor, she now makes art full time in her studio overlooking the beautiful waters of Puget Sound, which would inspire anyone. d’Elaine finds a particular beauty and connection to the earth’s waters.

Influences:LH: Tell me about your family?

DJ: I’m a native of Auburn Washington, and raised by my compassionate father and a religiously centered mother, along with a brother and three sisters. From my father, I learned to seek out a universal vision of life and I shed my mother’s point of view. I was born during the Great Depression, which required that I develop an innovative and creative mind.

LH: Where have you lived throughout your life? How has that shaped your art?

DJ: I was raised in a seaport state, in a culturally diverse population with numerous belief systems. As one of the first women scuba divers, the water was an inspiration in my art, as water gives life to the universe.

LH: When is the first time you realized you were an artist?

DJ: In first grade, my teacher, Miss Brant, gave me my first solo exhibition of works depicting a cut-away view of the liquid transparent world, showing ducks above the water line and fish below.

Other inspirations:LH: Who are some artists that you admire and why? What is it, specifically, about their work that draws you to it?

DJ: My artwork has always been uniquely my own, but I was naturally influenced by my contemporaries in the “Northwest School”, and my work might be said to be reminiscent of Mark Tobey. I often use some form of white writing in my artworks. Also some work suggests an oriental influence.

LH: What music do you play, if any, while making art?

DJ: I play the violin for inspiration, but I don’t play it while I’m making art. Playing the violin also inspires the painted compositions: a single melody, repetition, overlays, augmented with complexities until there is a visual in color.

Your artistic vision:LH: Describe the nature of your artwork.

DJ: The paintings are two-dimensional. The illusion of water is created through pouring many layers of acrylic paints onto rice paper. Papers are stretched over boards of many sizes, and icons of past cultures are reinterpreted in a current context and composed with patterns and designs. The colors are bright with white line accents. Each painting is coupled with the myth that inspired it.

LH: Water and myth appear often in your work. What attracts you to them?

​DJ: I have a fascination with the world’s waters. That interest escalated when I became one of the first women scuba divers, and later dove with Jacques Cousteau. My style evolved from abstract expressionism in the 50’s, to poetic visuals in the 60’s, to myth and lore of the world’s waters in the 70’s and to the present time. I studied life underwater and interpreted what I saw on canvas. The sea is a universal binding element; its relation to humanity is intrinsic and infinite. My particular art form ties all of life on this planet together in a universal context through the seas, where life began, and today connects all as one.